The present invention is an improvement of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,572,710 dated Mar. 30, 1971 and 3,984,104 dated Oct. 5, 1976.
Bowling is a sport now meeting with widespread acceptance. Bowlers, by virtue of years of experience with wooden pins, now expect certain properties of the pins with which they play. Perhaps the most important of these properties is the sound which comes from impact with a ball, impact with each other as the pins fly about, and engagement with adjacent alley structure. If a plastic pin is to meet with public acceptance, it is believed it must sound like a wooden pin and react like a wooden pin. This is especially true where tournament play is concerned.
The manner in which one pin affects another as it engages therewith after being forcibly removed from its position of rest by impact with a ball or other pin is also of importance from the aspect of scoring. The total number of pins which are felled by the delivery of a ball depends on the reaction of the pins with each other and with environmental alley equipment. All such reactions should be the same as those derived from wooden pins.
While plastic bowling pins have been proposed, it is believed that none of the now available plastic pins accommodate the above outlined factors to the degree necessary to accord to the plastic pins the widespread acceptance given to the wooden pins.
Accordingly, the present invention incorporates a new construction of the medial area of a tenpin located at the ball strike or impact zone to improve the sound quality of the pin and provide a lower coefficient of restitution of the pin body in that area to improve the scoring characteristics of the plastic bowling pin.